Browse Forums DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair 1 Sep 17, 2008 3:28 pm G'day.
We've been in our house now for about three years. It's a single-storey house built in the 50s. We're looking to move interstate but retain the property as a rental. There is plenty to do before we leave, one of the most pressing of which is addressing the problem of the brown water coming from our kitchen's cold tap (amongst others). We've put up with it since we moved in, but I wouldn't expect a tenant to. We need to run the cold water to clear it for up to a minute each morning, or if we haven't run it for a couple of hours or more. It starts out very brown, which slowly clears up (though not completely) after it's run for a while. My question is, what do you think I can expect as far as the process and cost of getting this sorted? Thanks a lot in advance. Re: Brown water from taps 2Sep 18, 2008 7:36 am You may want to call your local council first to see if they are doing maintenance somewhere if not than your pipes are getting old, sorry to say but that is big money to fix ask a plumber maybe.
Craig Re: Brown water from taps 3Oct 07, 2008 7:15 pm Check and see if the neighbors have this problem. If so, ring council, they may have recently worked on the pipes in your area and as there are water restrictions in most places, they no longer flush the lines after working on them. Re: Brown water from taps 4Oct 08, 2008 12:47 am You've been there for 3 years - sounds like rusty pipes and it needs to be fixed while your there IMO. Otherwise a pipe is likey to burst at some time - and you maybe interstate by then.
Call a plumbers and get some quotes. New pipes from the water meter is a most likely requirement. Steve Re: Brown water from taps 6Jan 12, 2009 9:50 pm More than likely, the galv. iron pipes have been replaced with copper and somewhere a galv. fitting has been left in the line. This is breaking down and the rust is coming through. You could try following the pipes back towards the kitchen tap. It may be close to the kitchen tap. Re: Brown water from taps 7Jan 13, 2009 7:29 am Hi,
I agree with the posts above regarding the replacement of rusty gal pipes as they will eventually fail....mine did and I only picked it up when I received a massive quarterly water bill. Also the council flushing the mains idea is valid too. I have just removed my brown water problem and it was neither of these, I had checked with the neighbours and they didn't have brown water so I was perplexed for while. Mine turned out to be the hotwater system being full of sludge (12 year old HWS) I always suspected it however it was confirmed the weekend when it failed and I had to put a new one in.....the new one turned out to be larger in diameter and didn't fit in the original postion properly which made a small job a large job.....anyway I digress. The only thing was that mine came through mostly on the hot side however I did get it on the cold but only if I had been running hot first so the pipes must have been primed to a certain extent with hot water that was left to sit when I stopped using the hot then later when I turned on the cold through it would come making me suspect the cold water system as well. Hope this gives you something else to consider. Cheers Re: Brown water from taps 9Jan 13, 2009 4:06 pm Quote: Mine turned out to be the hotwater system being full of sludge (12 year old HWS) I always suspected it however it was confirmed the weekend when it failed and I had to put a new one in. Brown water comming from a hot water unit just before they leak isnt necesarilya build up of sludge. Its rust from the sacrificial anode breaking down. Brown water from a hot line is always a warning that the tank is going to leak. once the anode is gone, the tank has no protection and quickly begins to leak, or burst. I replace 30 a month. Bathroom renovation will likely include a back-to-corner bath and we’re considering a freestanding tap with hand-held shower such as the picture included. My hesitation… 0 24685 18 90415 From what I know about water tanks (I've been working with a client on them for a few years now) is this - The concrete can last a lifetime if they don't crack for some… 2 10618 |